Days 1+2 and Academic Day Seminars

Day 1:
Yesterday was the first day of the program and the beginning of our orientation week. It was great getting to see everybody in person and I look forward to getting to know more of my co-residents as the week progresses!

It began with Dr. Janice Yeung introducing and providing a nice overview of the program. A statement she made that really struck me was that we were all pharmacists going into this program. You would think that preparing for licensing exams the past month would have allowed this fact to sink in…but her statement reminded me of the significance of actually having a license while practicing in this program. Although I am incredibly fortunate to begin my practice under the guidance of wonderful preceptors, I need to push myself to practice as if I am the pharmacist on the ward. Initially, I would likely be absorbing a lot of information from my preceptors, but I also need to understand my preceptor’s thought process and work-flow, proactively think about how I would function in their shoes and create and work on objectives that would help me achieve competency in their role.

Some tidbits from Janice’s orientation:

Outcomes: Broad and not measurable – focus on results of learning experience

Goals: Broads and not measurable – describes what learner will gain from institution

Objectives: Specific and measurable – describes what the learner will be able to DO as a result of engaging in the learning activity (END RESULT, not process)
-Tools: SMART, ABCD

Aim to do oral assessments by Christmas (available to do after Gen Med)
– Read Residency Guide for Oral Assessments
– Email Janice one month in advance before planned oral assessment

Academic Day Seminar #1: Later in the afternoon, Jason Park came to talk to us about available resources and information systems. This was definitely a very helpful session, especially for someone like me who is not tech-savvy. I found the resources we have available to keep our research project and other private data confidential useful (e.g. M Drive, encrypted USBs, password protect documents). Knowing that the information systems can be so complex, I will aim to understand the systems within the first few days depending on my exposure to it.

Academic Day Seminar #2: Dr. Peter Loewen came to talk about research and had 6 terms on his slide: Planning, Design, Approval, Conduct, Analysis, Dissemination. He talked about different things to consider when choosing a project such as: location, design, preceptor, feasibility, potential for publication. A question that Dr. Loewen left for us to ponder was whether or not it is better to be told what kind of design your project should be or be part of deciding what the design should be. Ideally, it would be good to be part of deciding what the design would be so that I have better insight into the process involved in choosing a design and rationalizing why other designs may not be as appropriate, feasible or cost-effective. Although the design has already been decided for most of the available projects, it is still imperative to inquire, understand why this design was chosen, its advantages and limitations and critically assess if this design was the most appropriate for the project.

Create a skeleton protocol document
– Write down research questions and hypothesis
– Introduction should:
— systematically review and have a comprehensive synopsis of current literature
— most literature intensive and will be long…but will shorten as you edit
— If doing a systematic review of your project = need to address what’s out there in literature…if something is done incomplete/bad/unreliable = elaborate why; if something has changed since the last SR = elaborate what…do NOT talk about the literature that you are going to systematically review in the introduction
— Ends with goal/learning objectives
– Sections: Objectives (can be overall goal, objectives followed by research Qs or objectives and then hypothesis, hypothesis by itself), Analysis (depends on how well you research and define your research objective), Statistics (wikipedia page), Population (define inclusion and exclusion = can change later on)
– Every objective should have an analytical plan!**Protocol = backbone of the project and final manuscript** (Samples provided)

For the first meeting, flush everything out and have a timeline for when everything should be done!
– Consider if we need a stats consult...if you do, consult BEFORE your protocol…do not wait for the end

Maintain a paperless data flow

Medi-tech = allows you to print drug reports

Retrospective review = at best, you can find association (learn very little on cause and effect relationships since it’s not randomized)

Propensity matching: fake randomizing retrospectively

6 REBs in LMPS…if anything changes significantly or changes the consent form = need to send amendment…if not significant, update in annual report

Day 2:
Today, we visited Children’s and Women’s Health Centre of British Columbia. Although I don’t have any pediatric rotations, it was enlightening to know about the different journeys some of the pharmacists took to get to their current role and that some pharmacists transitioned from an adult residency to clinical work in pediatrics. Dr. Roxanne Carr engaged us in discussions about what we wanted to gain from residency and our worries and it was comforting to know that we all shared similar goals and concerns.

In the afternoon, adult residents headed off to Burnaby Hospital. Although I don’t have any rotations in Burnaby Hospital, it was very valuable to learn about their operations, meet and hear the advice of their clinical pharmacists and get a tour of the hospital and the ICU ward.